The Fiendish Little Demon, who had flown in from afar in a single bound, descended before Ian.
“Thank you for saving our lives.”
Not only Ian, but all the warriors behind him bowed their heads respectfully.
If the one clad in the Divine Mechanism Iron Armor had launched his hidden weapons, many would have died.
As if it were nothing, the Fiendish Little Demon clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at the Bugwiseon floating far out on the river.
The aura of darkness emanating from that place was growing stronger and stronger. It was likely because of that dark aura that Mabul and Chwima had hurriedly broken through the barrier and entered.
The Fiendish Little Demon wanted to tear through the barrier and board the ship at once. He trusted the Young Cult Leader more than anyone, but the Lord of the Dark Palace was pouring out everything he had in a final desperate struggle. Even here, an ambush they had never anticipated had been waiting for them.
The Fiendish Little Demon said to Jangho and Ian,
“Leave only those who must remain. Have the rest of your men go to the safe house and wait.”
“Yes, we will.”
The practical combat experience their subordinates had gained on this excursion was enough.
Ian left Cha Iran and Cheongmyeon behind. She had Cha Iran stay because she would be of great help in this fight, and Cheongmyeon because of the Fiendish Little Demon. She thought Cheongmyeon would want to remain.
“Squad Leader Lee and Squad Leader Sa, take the men to the safe house and wait there.”
“Yes, understood.”
“And make sure you collect every hidden weapon. Especially that Divine Mechanism Iron Armor—secure it properly.”
Seojin and Jihan gathered up all the hidden weapons left by the corpses along with their men. Fortunately, because the Fiendish Little Demon had pierced the man’s eye and killed him in a single move, they were able to obtain the Divine Mechanism Iron Armor intact.
These hidden weapons of the Iron Gate would be of great help to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s forge in many ways.
Jangho sent all the Demon Troops back. The tactical shields were reassembled into the walls of the carriages, and the gaping hole left by the shattered shield seemed to show what would have happened had this fight gone wrong.
And so, after all their subordinates had departed for the safe house, only Ian, Jangho, Cha Iran, and Cheongmyeon remained there.
Ian felt the Fiendish Little Demon’s consideration.
He could have sent everyone to the safe house. He could have said they had done enough. Then he would have been free of the responsibility of having to protect them.
But the Fiendish Little Demon was giving her another opportunity. To remain on the battlefield and gain more experience.
Needless to say, there was much to gain from fighting directly, but even standing here and staring at the Bugwiseon filled with that aura of darkness would surely teach her something.
It was a consideration only someone truly strong could offer, and it also showed just how deep his relationship with Geom Mugeuk was.
‘Thank you, Lord Soma.’
Just then, Cheongmyeon approached the Fiendish Little Demon.
During the journey from leaving the cult to arriving here, he had not had a chance to speak with him privately. Even if he had, it would have been difficult to dare approach him.
But after the man had watched over the warriors of the Ghost Shadow Unit from behind like this, he could not simply remain still.
“Thank you for protecting us.”
At his greeting, the Fiendish Little Demon, still gazing at the Bugwiseon, asked him a single question he had not asked even once while they had traveled together.
“Have you been well?”
When the Fiendish Little Demon asked after him, emotion welled up in Cheongmyeon’s chest.
“Yes, I have been well.”
He had left for a new life, but how could he not miss the Valley of Villains? And among them, the person he missed most was the Fiendish Little Demon.
Then astonishing words suddenly slipped from the Fiendish Little Demon’s mouth.
“If you want to come back, you may.”
“!”
Behind his mask, Cheongmyeon’s eyes went wide. Even when the ambusher had suddenly appeared during the earlier fight and thrust a hidden weapon toward his face, he had likely not been this shocked.
The Fiendish Little Demon turned to look at Cheongmyeon. His gaze seemed to be asking,
You thought a new life would be nothing but good, but now that it’s become reality, isn’t it no different?
Unable to figure out how he should answer, Cheongmyeon silently lowered his head. As much as he was satisfied with his current life, he also missed his days as the Faceless Guest.
Then the Fiendish Little Demon abruptly said,
“Come out.”
Startled, Cheongmyeon raised his head. He thought the man was telling him to leave the Ghost Shadow Unit, but that was not it.
The Fiendish Little Demon’s gaze was fixed beyond Cheongmyeon’s shoulder, toward the rear.
Srrrk.
Far off on the ground, a black circle appeared, and a man rose smoothly out of it.
It was Hoe, the limb of the Lord of the Dark Palace.
No emotion could be felt from him. There was no hostility, no anger, no killing intent. That indifferent gaze made him seem all the more dangerous.
With Hoe’s appearance, the Fiendish Little Demon was able to grasp one fact.
From their perspective, this was the moment to concentrate their forces on that Bugwiseon, where the Young Cult Leader and several Demon Venerables had entered. Yet he had come here instead?
“You’re after Unit Leader Lee.”
When Hoe gave no answer, Cha Iran looked at Ian and replied in his stead.
“If he is an enemy, it is only natural to aim for the opponent’s heart.”
To tease her about the heart in a situation like this? Cha Iran was clearly more at ease than she was.
“The Young Cult Leader had to go and call me the heart for no reason.”
Though her mouth spoke in jest, Ian’s eyes gleamed sharply.
“Still, thanks to that, my heart has become a little stronger.”
After experiencing the earlier fight in a state of selflessness, she had gained a certain indescribable confidence.
And that confidence gave rise to a desire to fight more.
Hoe looked at Cha Iran.
“Wasn’t that originally the heart you were supposed to target?”
At his question, which rebuked her betrayal, Cha Iran readily admitted it.
“You seek loyalty from an assassin?”
Cha Iran did not know much about the Lord of the Dark Palace’s direct subordinates. The twelve who would later become the Twelve Zodiac Kings had been managed separately.
But even if she knew no other warrior, she knew Hoe well. He was the one who had gone back and forth between the Lord of the Dark Palace and them, delivering orders.
The subordinate most trusted by the Lord of the Dark Palace.
He had personally stepped forward.
“It seems the situation is desperate enough that you had to come in person.”
Hoe neither affirmed nor denied it.
His gaze turned toward the Fiendish Little Demon.
“What you said earlier was wrong.”
The reason he had come was not Ian.
“I came because of you.”
The instant those words ended,
a black circle had already formed beneath the Fiendish Little Demon’s feet.
Suuuuuk.
In an instant, the Fiendish Little Demon was dragged into the darkness.
It was not a power that could be blocked with movement techniques or inner force. To others, it looked as if he had fallen downward, but to the Fiendish Little Demon, the outside world flipped over in a flash, and in the next moment, he was standing somewhere else.
Darkness.
It was truly pitch-black darkness, without a single handful of light. Even the Fiendish Little Demon’s white mask was swallowed by the darkness and did not show at all.
Hoe’s voice came from within the dark.
“You will have to be trapped here for the rest of your life.”
The Eternal Dark Prison, one of the Dark Palace’s exclusive demonic arts and a powerful technique, had been unleashed.
The Eternal Dark Prison was a demonic art that came with sacrifice and danger.
In exchange for imprisoning someone, the caster had to be trapped there with them. And only after the one he had imprisoned died could he leave this demonic art.
Of course, the opponent would try to find and kill him, but in this absolute darkness, they could not discover him. The darkness was on his side, and it was no ordinary darkness.
“In the end, they all go mad and die, unable to endure the darkness and solitude.”
Even at those terrifying words, the Fiendish Little Demon was not shaken in the slightest.
Rather, behind the mask, his two eyes were smiling.
The Fiendish Little Demon had trained his entire life while staring only at a white wall.
What that life had touched upon was emptiness and nothingness.
And so, words Hoe could never have imagined flowed from the Fiendish Little Demon.
“It is comfortable here.”
* * *
Chwima and Mabul were watching the black energy slowly pressing in from the end of the corridor.
“That is the aura unleashed by the Greedy Heart Great Annihilation Art. If we are exposed to that energy, we won’t be able to use our strength fully. Let us go around.”
At Mabul’s suggestion that they turn back and go around, Chwima proposed a frontal breakthrough.
“Let’s just push through.”
There was a reason Chwima made that choice.
“The Young Cult Leader would not have avoided that energy.”
Mabul nodded. Yes, if it were Geom Mugeuk, he would have pierced through that dark energy to find the Lord of the Dark Palace.
“Very well, let us break through.”
In truth, Mabul had suggested going around partly out of consideration for Chwima.
“I can endure that energy, but will you be all right?”
“I’ll try to hold out with my drunken energy.”
As the two walked into the black fog, a foul energy assaulted them.
Golden radiance burst from Mabul’s body, protecting him.
As for Chwima, a potent alcoholic energy strong enough to intoxicate and collapse someone with just its smell wrapped around his body and protected him.
Despite the nature of their martial arts giving them strong compatibility against dark demonic arts, they could not perfectly shield their bodies.
“It really is vicious.”
The dark energy pierced through the alcoholic energy and seeped in. Chwima’s body grew heavy, as if he were suffering from a terrible fever.
“This is the first time in my life I have encountered dark demonic energy this powerful. If not for the Cult Leader’s Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art, I would not be able to withstand this energy in its entirety.”
The golden light emanating from Mabul’s body grew even more intense, and Chwima’s alcoholic energy also became thicker.
“Conversely, the dark demonic arts they unleash will display far greater power than usual.”
As they moved forward, they came upon a fork in the path.
“Which way do you think it is?”
“The Young Cult Leader surely headed toward the side where the energy grows stronger.”
Chwima was certain. Had he only ever drunk with Geom Mugeuk? He knew what kind of person Geom Mugeuk was, and what kind of choice he would make.
Mabul sensed the energy within the fog for a moment.
“Then it is this way.”
The two headed toward the side where the energy was stronger.
As they continued on, they reached a dead end, where there was a large door.
Chwima and Mabul looked at each other and nodded. After exchanging glances telling each other to be careful, they opened the door and stepped inside.
It was an enormous space. After moving only through the narrow corridors of the cabins, encountering such a place so suddenly was truly unexpected. The ceiling was so high that they had to crane their heads back for quite some time to look up at it.
It looked like a storage hold on the ship, with a few large crates and nets placed around. Ahead, there was a door leading out to the other side. Fortunately, the fog had not yet entered this storage hold.
“Now I feel like I can breathe. Let’s rest for a moment before we go.”
Mabul, who had been tense the whole time, also took a breath.
While resting briefly and looking around, Chwima discovered something on one wall.
“Look over there. There’s a painting on the wall.”
It was a painting of a man standing with his eyes closed. Naturally, it looked bizarre. On that vast wall, only a single person had been painted.
“Somehow, it feels unpleasant.”
Mabul was displeased by the fact that there was a painting in a space like this, but Chwima found it unpleasant in a more specific way.
“This bastard looks unpleasant right from the face. Even having his eyes closed looks arrogant.”
Chwima drew up his inner force and walked toward the painting. From behind him, Mabul’s voice rang out.
“Whoever painted it, they painted it well.”
Yes, it was probably because it had been painted too well that it felt this unpleasant. The figure in the painting had been rendered so vividly that it looked as though he might move at any moment.
“I doubt a boatman could have painted this well.”
“Perhaps a painter fell into gambling.”
“Somehow, I feel like this man is going to open his eyes.”
Like a drunkard, Chwima picked a fight with the painting.
“You, just try opening your eyes. I’ll stab you right through.”
Mabul might have said something at that, but he said nothing.
At the ominous feeling that arose for no reason, Chwima suddenly whipped around.
“!”
In that instant, Chwima’s expression hardened. A scene unfolded before him that truly sobered him up at once.
Mabul had become a painting inside the wall and was looking around at his own body and surroundings in bewilderment.
“I must have drunk too much. Lord Mabul is inside the wall.”
The moment those words ended, Chwima spun around like a thunderbolt and thrust his dagger at the painting that had earlier had its eyes closed.
Swish.
Thuk!
Chwima’s dagger lodged in the painting.
The place where the dagger struck was the chest of the man with his eyes closed. Though the dagger was embedded there, the painting did not move at all. What stained the dagger was not blood, but paint.
‘Is it not this bastard?’
As if!
At that moment, the man’s eyes snapped open.
Thuk! Thuk! Thuuuk!
Without a single shred of hesitation, Chwima stabbed repeatedly with the dagger.
But the man in the painting merely smiled at Chwima, as if to say it would be useless no matter how many times he stabbed him.
“You son of a bitch!”
The man moved within the wall. The area of the man’s chest where the dagger had been embedded had turned white.
Scritch, scritch, scritch.
At that moment, color filled the place, as if an invisible brush were painting over it.
He was the secret weapon who had been with the Dark Palace Lord earlier—the Dark Painting Spirit.
“So you can’t kill him from outside, is that it?”
The Dark Painting Spirit raced along the wall toward the opposite side, where Demon Buddha was. His movement was truly fast.
“Be careful, Lord Demon Buddha!”
Demon Buddha also looked at Drunken Demon and said something. But his mouth only moved; Demon Buddha’s voice could not be heard.
Demon Buddha unleashed a palm strike at the Dark Painting Spirit charging toward him.
Even the flying palm force was rendered as a painting.
Then the Dark Painting Spirit also released his palm force.
The two palm forces, turned into images as they flew, met in the middle and exploded.
Even the explosion was depicted as a painting. From outside, it looked utterly ridiculous, but Drunken Demon knew. If this was a dark sorcery powerful enough to draw Demon Buddha in an instant—
‘If he dies in there, Lord Demon Buddha dies too!’
The problem was that this space was overwhelmingly advantageous to that bastard.
Drunken Demon pounded on the wall, trying to enter the painting himself, but he could not get in. The wall was merely a wall.
He wanted nothing more than to smash the entire wall to pieces, but with Demon Buddha inside, he could not recklessly destroy it.
“Kill that bastard and come out! I’m counting on you, Lord Demon Buddha!”
Right now, the only thing he could trust was Demon Buddha’s skill.
And Demon Buddha splendidly lived up to his expectations. While engaging the bastard in close combat, Demon Buddha did not miss his chance and completed a hand seal.
Golden Great Lama Art!
Slaughtering Dharma Seal!
Golden astral energy surged from Demon Buddha’s hands and shot forth. The golden astral energy spreading like waves looked magnificent even as a painting.
“That’s it!”
Drunken Demon, watching, cheered. Demon Buddha had completed the hand seal in an instant at close range, so there was no way the bastard could evade it.
At that very moment, something unbelievable happened.
Demon Buddha’s movements stopped dead. The golden astral energy he had fired also froze in midair. The Dark Painting Spirit, who had been trying to dodge, stopped moving as well.
All of them had become a painting.
And then something even more shocking followed.
Swish, swish, swish.
Something began to be drawn between Demon Buddha and the Dark Painting Spirit.
“You crazy bastard! That’s cheating!”
A pitch-black hole was drawn directly in front of the flying astral energy. It looked like a passage leading somewhere else.
Drunken Demon’s eyes widened in shock. A terrible premonition surged up within him. The very instant the corners of the Dark Painting Spirit’s mouth, which had been frozen like a painting, curled upward—
“Don’t tell me you’re—?”
The next moment, the painting began to move again. The astral energy Demon Buddha had unleashed entered the dark passage drawn right in front of it.
At the same time, pitch-black darkness appeared before Drunken Demon.
Shwaaaaaaaaaak!
The Slaughtering Dharma Seal poured down upon Drunken Demon.